Attorney General Dan Rayfield alongside a coalition of 16 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit late Monday against the U.S. Department of Education for illegally cutting congressionally approved funding for mental health programs in K-12 schools.
After the tragic deaths of 19 students and 2 teachers during a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a bipartisan Congress appropriated $1 billion in order to permanently bring 14,000 mental health professionals into the schools that needed it the most. According to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), grantees served nearly 775,000 students and hired nearly 1,300 school mental health professionals during the first year of funding. NASP also found a 50% reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, decreases in absenteeism and behavioral issues, and increases in positive student-staff engagement based on data from sampled programs.
“Kids can’t learn if they don’t feel safe or supported—and cutting off mental health services in schools does real harm,” Rayfield said. “These funds were promised by Congress in response to a national tragedy, and they’ve been making a difference in students’ lives every day since. Yanking that support midstream undermines programs that are working and leaves schools scrambling. Oregon kids and schools deserve these tools to support them.”
The Department of Education awarded grants spanning a five-year project period and makes yearly decisions to continue each grant’s funding. As required by its regulations, the Department of Education considered the grantee’s performance when deciding whether to continue funding.
On April 29, 2025, the Department of Education sent boilerplate notices to grantees claiming that their grants now conflicted with the Trump Administration’s priorities and funding would be discontinued.
The attorneys general filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The complaint alleges that the Department of Education’s funding cuts violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution. The attorneys general ask a federal judge to rule the funding cuts are illegal and seek an injunction rescinding the non-continuation decision.
Joining Attorney General Rayfield in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.